Indiana school principals’ certification exam to be overhauled

By staff and wire services reports

March 20th, 2012

Indiana is poised to dramatically overhaul the way it determines whether educators are qualified to become principals, according to the Hechinger Report. Starting in the fall of 2013, Indiana will abandon its mostly multiple-choice test for the administrator license required to become a principal or vice principal. Instead, the new test will feature “real practical, applicable scenarios—case-study kinds of things—that actually show that you know what you’re talking about,” said Marg Mast, director of educator effectiveness and leadership in Indiana’s state department of education. Several states are discussing the idea of creating a new principal certification test, but Indiana is the only one currently doing so, according to Ben Fenton, co-founder and chief strategy and knowledge officer of New Leaders, a New York City-based nonprofit group that trains principals in 12 urban areas across the country…